CRSQ Archive

Volume
34, Number 1
June, 1997Abstracts

Sequence Stratigraphy: Value and Controversy - for Whom?

Allen C. Bartlett

The secular questioning
of the quietism of Lyell, Darwin, and modern geology in general is responsible
for the revolution in stratigraphy and sedimentology begun in 1977.
This revolution is known as sequence stratigraphy.

Sequence stratigraphy (the
classical Exxon approach) is compatible with creationist Flood geology.
Sequence stratigraphy is a non-time-dominant method of doing geology.
Strict uniformitarians (non-catastrophists) hate sequence stratigraphy.
Sequence stratigraphy is a threat to traditional uniformitarian formation-scale
or the grain-by-grain building-up and tearing-down of the land. Beyond
classification of sequence stratigraphic units within a new language
for geology, this less contrived philosophy of sedimentary analysis
potentially offers the dynamic of short-term sea-level changes superimposed
upon a single broad long-term sea-level curve (Wilgus, Hastings, Posamentier,
Van Wagoner, Ross, and Kendall, 1988). By extension, the Vail curve
of sea-level change (cycles within cycles) represents an exponentially
based event (non-biased) devoid of cumbersome, intellectually
restricting appeals to uniformitarianism - either uniformity of rate
or material conditions (earthly agents alone) or mad assertions
about space and time, invariance of natural laws (the exclusion of providence).

The failure of orthodox
uniformitarianism is permitting, in the secular scientific literature,
a return to the philosophy of katastrophe (Gk.: to overturn),
this time expressed in terms of "extraterrestrial causes."
The existential dichotomy, first described by Schaeffer (1968, 1976;
1968; 1977; 1972; 1976; 1976), has brought us to this present marvelous
state of affairs in the history of science.

On Time
Dilation in Cosmology

John Byl,
Ph.D

In recent years various
authors have suggested that time dilation could solve the problem of
seeing distant galaxies in a young universe. Time dilation which arises
in both special and general relativity, could presumably slow earth
clocks with respect to those on distant galaxies. This article examines
how time dilation can arise within various relativistic cosmological
models. It is found that in most cosmological models time dilation is
either not significant or is in the wrong direction. Strong time dilation
can occur in a static universe with pressure terms. However, in that
case the predicted galactic red shifts would be much greater than those
actually observed. It is concluded that the time dilation hypothesis
thus faces a number of serious problems that must still be resolved.

A Challenge
to a Classic Example of the Survival of the Fittest Doctrine:
The Dodo and the Passenger Pigeon Story

Jerry Bergman,
Ph.D

Careful re-evaluation of
the Dodo by several contemporary researchers has found that many of
the widely accepted conclusions about it are wrong. It was not a fat,
slow, inferior, defenseless bird, but a swift and fierce fighter if
it perceived that it was threatened. The common conclusion that it was
defenseless is partly due to the fact that it did not have a natural
fear of humans or many animals. Often given as the prime example of
how evolution prunes out the weak, it was concluded that its extinction
was not because of inferiority, but due to the wanton disregard of life
by humans. Often regarded by contemporaries as a wonderful, magnificent
creature, its loss proves not the efficacy of natural selection, but
the depravity of its caretaker. In contrast the Passenger Pigeon was
widely regarded as one of the most fit and evolutionarily successful
birds; yet it became extinct. This case also eloquently illustrates
the depravity of the Passenger Pigeon's caretaker.

Investigation
of a Non-carbon Based Biochemistry and its Implications for Cellular Biology
Part I.
Glycine and its Silicon Based Derivatives

Edward A.
Boudreaux

It has been suggested that
since the presumed biochemical evolution of life involves the formation
of proteins from amino acids, a similar mechanism could perhaps have
also occurred with non-carbon based amino acids. The element most chemically
similar to carbon is silicon, although no silicon analogs of amino acids
are known to exist. This paper reports a study of bond energetics for
glycine, a hypothetical analog in which carbon atoms are replaced by
silicon, and other modifications in which the glycine nitrogen and oxygen
atoms are replaced by phosphorus and sulphur respectively. Comparison
of energy changes are made between reactant molecules and their respective
peptide bonded products. The results indicate that the peptide bond
formation process is energetically feasible for glycine, but not for
the proposed modifications.